25 May 2026 07:39:25
This season Amorim got 32 points from 21 games, Carrick has 39 points from 17 games. But it's all about Xg apparently.
25 May 2026 11:29:33
Feels like a pretty good sample size to use for extrapolating those points to me.
At the same rate of points, Amorim would have got 58 points, and we would have possibly just snuck into 5th, although it would be tight. Carrick would have got 87, a league title win. It is obviously not an exact science, and I doubt we would have won the league this season, but it does show the huge difference between before and after.
I liked Amorim, and I think there could have been improvement, but the results just weren’t there. Carrick has plenty to prove to show that we can win games whilst also deserving to win them.
There have been a few where we have just about got away with a bad performance, but sometimes managers can just win. Football is about scoring more goals than the other team, and more often than not we have managed that since Carrick came in. Before that, we just could not quite do it, and that is the biggest difference.
xG is a useful stat, but it cannot and should not be used as a be-all and end-all for making decisions, and no clubs do this, it is just used as a guide.
25 May 2026 11:45:32
Time will tell with Carrick. My instinct is that we have had more than our fair share of luck, and won games that we otherwise wouldn't have done.
That is where xG does become a relatively accurate long term market.
25 May 2026 11:53:32
Why be so spiky? Grow up, fella.
25 May 2026 12:02:09
I find Carrick uninspiring, and I do wonder if he can take us forward, but it's easy to forget where we were. When he took over, we were 7th, 3 points behind Liverpool, and 11 points behind Villa. We may have had some luck, but to finish 11 points ahead of Liverpool and 6 points ahead of Villa is some achievement.
Amorim may have turned it around over time (personally I don't think he would have), but it all seemed a bit entrenched.
Anyway, I'll shut up now.
25 May 2026 12:05:36
Jd123, that's football though, right? Arsenal are the best team in the country, sadly, but I'd suggest they had their fair share of luck too. I saw a stat, could be fake, to be fair, but it suggested United had the most, or one of the most, VAR decisions go against them this season. So for the luck we've had, we've also had some hard luck.
25 May 2026 14:10:11
Amorim needed better players to play his system. We took 442 players, and tried to play 3421 - 2 very different systems.
If you are implying Amorim is a crap coach, I don't agree at all. The problem lay at the feet of the club, who chose to go with him and his system without the ability to invest in players we needed.
Amorim ended up being the coach that removed a lot of the bad apples from the club. This has also been instrumental in the feeling we have turned a corner. I still think we have a long way to go to be competing at the top table.
25 May 2026 14:11:48
Defense is important too, maybe even more so. Arsenal's success was largely built upon it. Chelsea and Liverpool's weakness this year was as a result of weaker defensive structure. We conceded 30 goals in the first 20 games, and only 18 in the last 17. That's where the most significant improvement occurred, and that's a direct result of the structural changes under Carrick, which were never going to happen under Amorim. Bruno is not a defensive midfielder. We do better with 4 at the back, with opposition wingers being marked by full backs rather than wing backs, and, when they're out of position, ill-equipped CBs.
The 33 goals scored v 18 conceded in 17 games is a stat that, if marginally improved upon, should see us competing for the title next season. As they say, good teams create their own luck.
Let's hope we can acquire the right players and that Carrick can continue to deliver. There's no guarantees, whoever is at the helm. If there were, the sport would be dull, and we would have nothing to discuss.
25 May 2026 14:32:50
Also, the two teams out of 19 we didn't play while Carrick was manager were Burnley and Wolves lol. Easily could have been 45 points from 19 games.
25 May 2026 20:12:21
AJH, be careful saying anything negative about Amorim. Don Red won't be having any of it.
It's all about the XG. ?
25 May 2026 20:16:06
No, it isn't, Angel. I never said that. And I don't mind negativity about Amorim - just don't go making up stuff.